If you are a video animator, 3D animator or a gamer, then you need to upgrade your PC or gaming laptops, due to the demand of next level specifications and the requirement of the applications to get your work done in a short time period and in the most feasible way. Since the procedure of choosing GPU for your system is a daunting task, here we have skimmed the market and collected the best graphics card for video editing.

Do you really need to spend on a dedicated graphics card? Read below or Skip and jump to the Reviews

Well this question is ought to come first in your mind, right? If you haven’t thought about it yet then think about it first then move forward, otherwise not. To be very honest, if your work is going perfectly fine along with your integrated GPU then DO NOT SPEND a single penny. It means that your level of video or photo editing is a basic or entry level, that’s why you are not facing any obstacle to achieve your required result.

On the contrary, if you are experiencing lagging, dropping FPS, delay in rendering the image in real time, as well as getting a cracky video clip, or if you are facing all these problems in playing high end games too, then you MUST NEED TO SPEND on a dedicated graphics card. A highly professional computer is the demand of the time when you have loads of work to do on your single setup, including animations, creating images, editing video in a professional way, encoding visual effects and want results instantly, in this case, you need to build your PC or to upgrade it, both requires a powerful discrete graphics card.

Common FAQs people ask about the best graphics cards for video editing

1. Is video editing, graphics card intensive or CPU intensive task?Video editing is certainly CPU intensive in which the maximum role is played by the processor including the encoding, fetching data and generating the content. But when the content is produced on the screens, GPU plays or helps the processor in this matter. Or else, if the PC has a powerful GPU, the quality of the videos, pictures, animations are super impressive and the result will be highly effective which you see on your screens.

2. Is it necessary to have a graphics card for video editing?Yes the graphics card is now becoming a potential and effective component of the PC without which 2k and 4k content is a dream to play, only if you are more into quality than quantity of the content. Plus if you are a professional editor, then your whole job revolves around not only any ordinary GPU but a high power GPU (in regard of quality), which can handle high resolutions, solid frame rates and more importantly multitasking in real time.

3. Can I do video editing with a gaming laptop?The gaming laptops usually own high and powerful configurations to deal with high intensive games. This configuration holds a powerful GPU as well, so the answer is a definite yes, you can do from low level of video editing to high level of editing task quite effectively and with ease.

4. How much RAM is needed for video editing?Light editing of videos or photos can be done in 8GB of RAM, but when it comes to editing HD videos, the system requirement is no less than 16GB of RAM. Similarly, editing videos of 4k to 5k resolution requires 32GB of the RAM to run the process and deliver the edited content up to the mark.

5. How important the VRAM of the GPU is, in video editing?VRAM is the Video RAM of the GPU, it is less important in terms of the role it plays in editing videos but more important in terms of holding the content in itself. Means for instance, if editing 4k videos, if you have 8GB VRAM, it is more than enough to store a huge amount of 4K content.

Top Ten Best Graphics Card For Video Editing and Rendering

Here we have bucketed Nvidia and AMD graphics cards, no doubt the most demanding and all time favorite GPUs for almost every one of us, another reason is that most commonly used video editing software uses Cuda and OpenCL program, though skimming through them is a bit difficult to do. But no worries, there comes the best graphics card for editing by Nvidia and AMD.

Key Features

EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 by Nvidia Turing Architecture is a new version EVGA Precision X1, a solid and a great competition to its own predecessor EVGA Precision XOC. GeForce RTX 2080 super is certainly the best graphics card for 1080p gaming, since it has real time ray tracing ability and can be overclocked. Moreover, it is a best graphics card for video editing, this powerful AI enhanced Graphic card gives no delays in generating edited clips, no lags and no more waiting for the production.

Certainly EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Super makes a lot of difference when its about 3D modeling and collaborate with your system application quite amazingly, thus if I say this is the best GPU for 4k video editing, it wouldn’t be an overestimation because of the end results we got in editing and rendering videos. In addition, its base is all metal plated and the HDB adjustable fans are super powerful and a great way to eliminate heating of the VRAM during the process during which a very low sound could be heard that is close to no noise at all.

Reason to Avoid

2. XFX AMD Radeon VII Review – Best video card for video editing

Key Features

16GB DIMM, 4096 stream processors

4096 Bit width memory

1TB/s memory bandwidth

Boost clock 1750MHz, memory clock speed 1000MHz

Display port x1, HDMI x3

PCI Express 3.0×16 Bus type

The 16GB vast memory is a great punch which makes this GPU one amongst the best graphics card for video editing. AMD Radeon VII is a great choice to make for extreme gaming, likewise, its twice memory and bandwidth enables a stutter-free video editing. Its 7nm processing Technology is comparatively better than Nvidia Turing Architecture in terms of performing although in the same power consumption. If we make a comparison over DirectX 12, it is not so amazing performer though quite good in DirectX 11, seems a rectification is needed apart from the attraction of the vast memory.

XFX AMD Radeon VII is the best GPU 1080p 144Hz makes a great alliance with 4k or 1080p monitors at 60 FPS. Further, it is more suitable for monitors with the high resolution of 4k, 8k and is VR ready, its creation of video and editing is quite impressive, its visual quality is up to the mark, hence renders the best videos in real time without lags or drop of frames, whereas, a massive competition to AMD Vega 20. Apart from its good votes, its cooling process is a little disappointing, although it has biggest VRAM to run high end games and equally fills there graphic needs, it gets heat up quickly and the fans are unable to heatsink it properly and creates noise while fanning it out.

Key Features

RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio is the successor of GTX 1080 and RTX 2080 Super. GeForce RTX 2080 is indeed one of the best graphics card for video editing and rendering. In the shed of Nvidia Turing Architecture Geforce RTX 2080 supports Real time Ray tracing in games and DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling). In moderate settings, you can easily get 60 to 65 PFS and can enjoy a realistic gaming experience in 1080p resolution. RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio is a tremendous performer whether you play Battlefield 5 or Shadow Die Twice, this best GPU for 1080p gaming provides remarkable results in real time.

Another key thing to remember here is its overclocking capability, you can boost its performance to the next level to enhance the gaming pleasure, credit goes to MSI Afterburner software fully equipped you with all the commanding authority right on the spot to utilize and edit your videos the way you want it. Whereas when we talk about its ability to produce edited videos, it renders quickly and super fast generation in real time without tearing images or lagging. On the other hand, if you intend to dive in lengthy gaming hours, its MSI TORX fans and concentrated copper heat pipes keeps the hardware cool and make every possible effort to smooth down the gaming and rendering videos, hence enables optimal multitasking.

Reason to Buy

Real time Ray tracing

7680×4320 maximum resolution

Incredible overclocked boost performance with afterburner software

Customize mystic light software

Customize backplate with thermal pads

Flawless multitasking

Reason to Avoid

Need more room to fit compared to others due to uncommon size of the card

EVGA GeForce is another best graphics card for video editing 4k, a powerful version of video cards on the front to help you done your work fast and in a much better way. This 8GB video card perform great in terms of editing video, 3D animations and gaming in real time. You can experience ultimate 4k gaming on medium or high graphics settings under 60FPS with a nice detail and can also be able to see Real time ray tracing. Further there is no delay or shaky visual while editing, the results are great in minimal time period, you can switch from one task to another without waiting for the frame to appear, renders the result too quickly, credit goes to its 14Gbps speed of the memory.

Moreover, on its maximum resolution of 7680×4320, a very immersive gaming sessions are conducted. Another key thing is, it is 10.5 inches long graphics card, the plate is punched to get fixed in the system without hassle. In addition, this Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super has dual hydro dynamic bearing fans, in spite, they are really powerful, its heat sinking process is quite effective. The fans cools down the system within no time regardless of the workload, makes this GPU one of the best graphics card for editing.

Key Features

GeForce RTX 2060 Super is an improved version of its predecessor GeForce RTX 2060 founder edition, the very next in this pipe line. RTX 2060 Super is not less than a SHOUT OUT for gamers, you will get amazing frame rates upto 240 to 144 FPS in pubg (Playerunknown Battlegrounds), Fortnite, Apex Legend etc, yet it may drop to 30FPS in extremely advanced games you might want to play. It allows live streaming in gaming, shooting your progress and capturing screenshots and sharing the marvelous and immersive screen with friends.

However, this is indeed one of the best graphics card for video editing and rendering no doubt. Its rich colors, visual effects and quality of images while animating and creating edit portfolios are exceptionally out class. Being a good GPU for video editing, it has a powerful memory and speed to render the result in real time, it’s Nvidia Turing Architecture makes more powerful sense to achieve the task within no time. GeForce RTX 2060 Super the best GPU for video rendering enables you to leap to new heights of creativity with Nvidia studio where you can overclock and boost the performance to get the most out of it in the least possible time period.

GeForce RTX 2060 is the successor of the 2060 Super series, although it wants serious rectifications which has been done in 2060 Super, but the founder edition is still one of the best graphics card for video editing and rendering since its capabilities are not less to rule out it from the list. GeForce RTX 2060 is very much capable to render the desired result, whether it’s gaming or multitasking, its powerful 6GB VRAM make every possible effort to bring the flawless and tear free image with great detail and visual effects.

GeForce RTX 2060 is the best video card for 4k video editing as well, the extra shading, exquisite details, immersive and smooth video flow all goes to the next level of animation you have ever experienced. Moreover, coming towards how it deals with the hotshots of the air while tasking, there is again impressive feature thanks to the dual TORX fan 2.0, which sink out the heat generated within the hardware in a very silent way, you hardly notice the spinning of the fans, it makes your environment peaceful as well as lag free all the time, irrespective of the workload. Certainly, no doubt it is a VR (Virtual reality) ready best 1080p gaming GPU, where an evolutionarily realistic images are created at the moment so you can have rich content on the screen every time.

Key Features

AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT is a third generation graphics card with 8GB memory and 14Gbps memory speed, very suitable to run high end games. While playing Battlefield V or witcher 3, you will have around 105FPs on average. The best part is you can go up to 6 monitors instead of usual 4 monitor graphics card compatibility, on which playing games at 8k resolution upto 60Hz and at 5k resolution the quality of visuals goes to 120Hz, which is indeed impressive yet immersive for gamers. Whereas talking about how a good graphic card for editing it is, then you are all set because it is certainly the best graphics card for video editing by AMD.

Its powerful stream processors are extremely well to munch up the data and render it in real time without costing your precious time and you could switch from one task to another in seconds. In addition, its memory bandwidth is twice the PCIe 3.0 of an ordinary PC or desktop, that is the PCIe 4.0, a very latest and powerful processing, if you are a gamer or an animator, you will experience 42% faster storage capability. However it consumes 25% less power as compared to Radeon VII and 10% less than the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super. Apart from this, overclocking is a bit disappointing since it goes from 1905MHz to a drop at around 1700MHz which is suddenly not a good pinch all over, likewise the cooling fans are noisy too. In short, it is the best video card for editing and a good graphics card for 1080p gaming.

Reason to Buy

Advanced 7nm (nanometer) Technology

Supports 6 monitors simultaneously

Supports Display Screen Compression Technology

Best graphics card for editing 4k video

4k, 5k, 8k resolution games supportive

Pulling out upto 100FPS is easy by this video card for gaming and video editing

AMD Radeon RX 570 is a budget gpu for 1080p gaming, with its High Dynamic Range (HDR) and FreeSync Technology, it produces high quality of gaming and content animation. It is a cheap 1080p graphics card, enables you to compete the tournament with excitement beyond expectations. While playing Battlefield I, Call Of Duty: Infinite Warfare, For Honor, Doom and Resident Evil 7, you will get 65, 62, 67, 74 and 75 frame rates respectively, at medium graphics settings. The rich colors and shadings pushes you to another world, its virtual reality ready premium gives you a chance to step and taste some lively situations in a game and thus create an incredibly intuitive environment for the gamer.

AMD Radeon RX 570 bears AMD FreeSync Technology with which tear free, lag free and stutter free performance is provided in real time and is equally effective while editing videos and multitasking. Whereas its overclocking capability accelerates the working process and its cooling fans are noise free, you hardly notice the sound of the fans, they effectively remove and dissipate the heat to ensure you can get a tear free non stop performance every time.

Key Features

With a shrinking budget while upgrading your PC, GeForce GTX 1060 is cheap 1080p graphics card, a decent option with which you can run mid range games and can get 60-65 FPS on average. You must keep in mind this cheap graphics card for video editing is pro in only animating and 3D modeling, you should not expect to run Battlefield V or Hitman 2 like high end games where high frame rates are required to enter the true and immersive sense of gaming. However Geforce GTX 1060 is the best budget GPU for video rendering, its purpose is not only to edit the videos but it enables you to work like a pro in every aspect. With its maximum resolution of 7680×4320 at 60Hz, the picture quality is amazing.

Further, the double ball bearing dual TORX fan 2.0 ensures noise free heatsink, its cooling process is very much effective and allows multitasking without the trouble of heated hardwares. Moreover, apart from its performance, GeForce GTX 1060 is built quite impressively, light in weight and motherboard friendly with non messy connections. You can also see customize LED lights that lifts and drops according to the fluctuation of the sound, you can still them or put the lights into sleep if you don’t fancy this option.

Key Features

GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is another best graphics card for video editing and rendering, it is a powerful GPU for gaming as well based on Nvidia Turing Architecture, ensures the performance of the next level. This is a mid range graphics card designed for multitasking, makes easy and engrossive when it comes to animating and gaming both. Its is a 6GB dedicated graphics card with a great performance, though its memory speed is a bit slower than others but still it works and renders the results as desired without lagging and no skippy video parts in real time.

It works efficiently and can be overclocked to boost the performance in order to get the most out of it. Sharing videos, screenshots and customizing images with friends and game pals are very easy and exciting, specially to show them the picture quality you run on your PC while gaming. Though it is a mid range GPU, it is amazingly good graphics card for 1080p gaming, you can experience immersive gaming and can get 60FPS on medium setting including Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Call Of Duty Black OPS or Wolfenstein II. Moreover, the heat dissipation process is really effective and noise free, that ensures the high performance with a great quality cooling fans. Although there is no real time ray tracing, yet it is able to run high end games without stuttering or tearing of the image.

Key Features

If you are uncertain about MSI RTX 2080, then Asus ROG Strix RTX 2080Ti advanced is a step ahead as a best graphics card for video editing and rendering. This GPU is extremely well performed and overclocked with 11GB memory GDDR6 memory bandwidth. This graphics card is based on advanced Nvidia Turing Architecture, pushes the real time ray tracing which is very much and too likely recommended for responsive 4k gaming with accurate shadings and reflections. This 4k graphics card also supports SLI, G-Sync ready, Nvidia Boost 4.0 and Nvidia Ansel. Its Tweak II property allows the gamer to tune the settings to a great extent including overclocking, shading, brightness, voltage consumption, fan control, RGB lights and much more.

When you want an advanced level of real time gaming performance, this gaming GPU is capable to touch that optimum gaming experience which makes a huge leap for high end games with high frame rates. Moreover, coming towards the other features, it has triple axial 0bd fans with effective heat sink technology, results in impressive performance remaining under the temperature and is IPX5 dust resistance, which keeps the fans functional. Its 2.7 slot design is highly effective as well to boost the performance and provide a good amount of surface to cause heat dissipation process to the very limit.

Reason to Buy

Up to 4 monitors supportive

RGB lighting with ASUS Aura Sync

Auto Extreme and Max Contact Technology

XSplit game caster, game booster and WT fast and Quantum Cloud supportive

GPU Tweak II

Real time ray tracing, VR and SLI ready

Reason to Avoid

Overrated for just editing videos and photos

Expensive

What is a Graphics card (GPU)? Buyers Guide

Graphics processing unit is a hardware which helps to produce the image on your screen. This GPU is responsible to create the image of the content whether its gaming, video, pictures etc, its quality, however depends on the quality of the GPU. There are two types of the graphics cards.

Integrated graphics card

Dedicated graphics card

Integrated Graphics Card

Integrated graphics card are the one that comes on the same chip along with the CPU. they are cheaper in cost and are able to run basic video streaming, photoshop, video editing and other activities in a quite decent way. However, since both the processors i.e. the GPU and the CPU are located on the same chip, one works at the cost of limiting the performance of the other. In this case, when you on the hight of tabs or computing, you might experience lagging in your PC activities.

Dedicated Graphics Card

On the other hand, a dedicated graphics card comes on a separate chip and a RAM for its own performance that results in lag free computing and video editing. Specifically, a dedicated graphics card is a good opportunity for those who want a serious workout on their PC without interruption or a delay of clicks, yet a smooth go with everything on hand. Thus, these dedicated GPUs are responsible for multitasking which obviously brings a new height of its own.

So if it seems expensive to you, then remember they worth the cost for what they provide, its eligibility lies from gamers to aggressive video editors to keep the flow of the image in a professional way.

Which is better, dedicated or integrated GPU?

Indeed it depends on the task you are about to perform, if its a basic level of browsing, video editing and gaming, then you must not spend on GPU. Yet stepping ahead, where there is not just a basic level but there is a need to perform the professional level of multitasking all in one place and you don’t want the real juices of the visuals to leak out, then don’t resist yourself to grip on dedicated GPU. They will not only the powerful GPU to smooth out the image on the screen, but are very much responsible for led down the load on the processors which might limit and cause the activity to shrink and slow down the job.

Which one is better, Nvidia or AMD?

To know the answer let’s dive into the terms Cuda and OpenCL, to inform yourself in a better way. Cuda is a parallel computing hardware and software technology created by Nvidia. This application programming interface allows its users to perform general computing including science and research areas, mathematical calculations, video, and photo generating, financial algorithms, hence it is utilized in every device with these elements to perform comprising your mobile devices, laptops, PC where there is video conversion take place.
On the other hand, OpenCL (Open Computing Language) is a programming unit to execute and develop codes on different platforms including the Central Processing Unit (CPU), Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), Digital Signal Processors (DSP), Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and other processors.

Now back to the question.

Nvidia uses Cuda as a parallel computing platform, whereas AMD uses OpenCL open source parallel programming framework. Nvidia also uses OpenCL, but not as good as AMD processors do for computing. Though if your video editing software utilizes Cuda, then Nvidia is a much better performer than AMD, similarly, if the application is using OpenCL then AMD is a better choice to make.

What are G-Sync and FreeSync?

One main cause of buying a graphics card other than the integrated GPU that already comes along with your system is the trouble of visuals on the screen that mismatch the film of pictures or frames and bring up visual distortion with them. Therefore, to eliminate this distortion and to make the flow of graphics smoothly, Nvidia has developed the G-Sync Technology, its purpose is to remove the tearing of the picture and maintain the smooth flow of videos or gaming.

This Technology produces an interval of time after sending a particular amount of frames (normal frame rate is 60GHz or 60 frames per second), this time is given to remove the misalignment between sending these frame rates from the graphics card to the receiving by the monitor. Within this interval, the graphics card wait and didn’t send another frame until the monitor finished the process of drawing and displaying the content on the screen.

On the other hand, FreeSync is the synchronization Technology made by AMD, its purpose is to do the same job as G-Sync to reduce the stuttering and tearing caused by the mismatch among the frame rate and refresh rate of the monitor and the Graphics card. This Technology is invented by the AMD in 2014 to give competition to Nvidia, however, many of your monitors, smartphones, PC, and many other digital devices bear this processing technology. Whereas, if we talk about which of these technologies is better than the other, it is another debate with different perspectives and has different scenarios.

What are the frame rate (FPS) and the refresh rate (Hz)?

While buying a new TV for your home, monitor or PC, you must have come across these terms, if you are not familiar with them, then it must be a difficult time to absorb them and pick the device according to your need.
Don’t worry, these terms may seem complex but they are very simple once you understand the relationship among your graphics card and the monitor.

Your monitor is responsible to dish out the produced content by the graphics card. At first, your GPU produces a certain amount of pictures in bulk which all are slightly different from each other, consider these all pictures are compressed into a bunch, this bunch is called a frame and are pushed to the monitor after every second i.e the frames per second (FPS).

In the second stage, the monitor receives this frame and render it on the screen, the time between the receiving and rendering of the frame is enough to make a smooth flow and not to drop any single frame is known as the refresh rate represents in Hz. The thing of special attention here is, your FPS shouldn’t be higher than your refresh rate. Or if your refresh rate is lower than your FPS then your monitor will not be able to render the image quickly in real time and you will experience broken unstable visual. Thus, the greater the refresh rate the better it will render the image.

How to buy a perfect graphics card for your PC or laptop?

It might be difficult to choose the one if you are not acquainted with it already but once you understand its properties which you must need to consider then its a piece of cake for you. Whether the purpose to buy a discrete or a dedicated graphics card lies in between gaming or its because of the video editing, by which you want your system to respond quickly as well as efficiently, a strong graphics card is all you want.

1. How much you are willing to spend?

This is the first thing that you should decide on your own. The amount you are willing to pay will bring you to the product of that price and then you have no option left to bang on, so better to think over your budget before filling your cart. Although if you are tight on budget or believe that you have nothing to run any task aggressively on your PC, then you can switch to a low price range of GPUs that are easily available in the market. One of them with low cost yet great performance is AMD, until now no one has come forward to beat AMD in low price GPUs.

Keeping in mind your budget constraint, a cheap GPU price range is around $70 to $95 and will be fine for light gaming with low resolution and acceptable FPS. Whereas, if you manage to spend $100 to $180, you can enjoy some decent gaming at low or medium settings in 720p or 1080p resolution, the best budget graphics card for video editing as well. Moreover, if you can bring out around $190 to $450 from your pocket, you can have mid range 1080p graphics card with which you can experience a flawless gaming session and will also be able to fulfill the need for the best graphics card for video editing and rendering.

Though increasing your budget some more around $480 to $1500, can give you great frame rates on 1440p and 1080p resolution, a very suitable option for VR head mount display. Whereas if you want the premium quality on all types of resolution or you want a best graphics card for 4k video editing and to play high end games with exceptional frame rates then you need to spend around $1600 to $3000. Therefore, you will get what you have paid for, the more you spend, the better you get.

2. Pen down the information of your system

It may sound bizarre but you must need to do some homework before looking for a best graphics card for video editing and gaming. This requires the information about your system you own, it includes the processors, resolution of your monitor, the space in the case where your new GPU is going to be settled. It should also be noted that the power consumption of a particular video card you are willing to buy and how much heat it exhale out (in a professional language it is called thermal design power, TDP). this information will lead you to a perfect GPU, that suits your system and can help to work in a great form than before.

3. Memory and bandwidth

If you are about to run multiple displays or fancy 4k resolution for high end games, then you have to go with high RAM GPUs and it will obviously bite down a good amount of money of your budget. The bigger the memory the better it will be to play games of next level with high performance and great to generate quick pixels on your screens. However, the role of bandwidth is very simple and need to be taken special consideration, since these dedicated graphics card has their own memory to process the information and this process will not disturb your CPUs RAM, make sure the bandwidth of your new GPU is high to store more and more information, usually the bandwidth comes in DDR3, DDR4 and DDR5, the latter is the strongest bandwidth form and is much better than the rest.

4. Interfaces

Make sure your new graphics card has enough ports to give connections to as many monitors as you want. You will find display ports, HDMI, DVI, VGA in the GPU, that will help you to connect more than one display. Whereas, if any of your monitors doesn’t support any of these connections then you have to connect adaptor in order to make them compatible with each other. You also need to see the room for GPU next to the motherboard to fix it nicely where it can rest and easy to display the ports.

5. Clock speed

A particular graphics card has its own clock speed or an engine clock, that defines the speed of working that is processing the information and pushing it to the system, measured in Gigahertz (GHz). The usual clock speed is 3.5GHz to 4.0GHz and considered a good speed to process. Whereas talking about overclocking the speed to boost the performance is another case. Thus, the high clock speed the better it will be.

Conclusion

Upgrading or building up your PC needs too many conditions, aspects and elements to take in, where it is a wise decision to build a PC, it is a lengthy process as well which you can’t just do by throwing money randomly. Hence, before doing this, make sure you have calculated everything and taken in every information regarding the graphics card you want to buy.

Whereas for immersive gaming and flawless video editing, given above are the great options by Nvidia and AMD of this year, they are upgraded and latest yet feasible for every application to run with, including animation, 3D design, photoshop and playing high end games.